Several radio communication technologies have been described in recent years. Different technologies have been designed for different, sometimes specific, uses. In order for a radio communication, or radio access, technology to be widely usable it may be standardised using open or proprietary standards which define how radios must operate in order to be capable of communicating with each other using the technology in question.
Wideband code division multiple access, WCDMA, technology has been developed by the third generation partnership project, 3GPP, for use in general cellular communication. Design priorities in WCDMA are flexible quality of service, reasonable energy efficiency, privacy and mobility. Similarly the TETRA standard has been designed as a variant of commercial cellular technologies for use in applications where security in particular is emphasized.
Wireless local area network, WLAN, technologies have been developed to provide high datarates for nodes that may not be very mobile. WLAN has been standardised by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE. WLAN networks may have smaller coverage areas than cellular networks, and personal-area networks may have smaller still coverage areas spanning only a few meters at the smallest. Examples of personal-area networks are Bluetooth and Zigbee networks.
Some communication devices are furnished with capability to communicate using more than one radio communication technology. For example a mobile phone may communicate using cellular technology when transferring speech during high mobility and the mobile phone may communicate using WLAN when transferring data files during low mobility. A mobile phone may also be capable of communicating with a wireless headset using a personal-area technology, for example.